CNN’s David Gergen Slams Trump After ‘Send Her Back’ Rally Chant: ‘When You Outdo Nixon in Repulsiveness…’

CNN Senior Political Analyst and former Nixon advisor David Gergen said President Donald Trump‘s recent comments — including his behavior at Wednesday nights rally in North Carolina when “Send her back” chants broke out —  manage to “outdo”  Richard Nixon in “repulsiveness.”

Gergen’s comments were prompted by host Anderson Cooper‘s question about his thoughts on Trump standing by while his rally crowd chanted “send her back.”

The chant, which followed Trump ripping into a sitting member of Congress, was aimed at Rep. Ilhan Omar.

“David, I mean, you know, there have been past president held views but in private, it is — I’m wondering as somebody that worked for Democratic and Republican administrations, what is it like to see the president on that stage tonight encouraging or at least standing by and allowing the ‘send her home’ chant to grow?” Cooper asked.

Gergen said it was “very discouraging.”

He then said that you would have to go back to the 1850s and Woodrow Wilson to find parallels to what is happening with the presidency today.

“[Wilson] brought racism straight into the White House and had a showing, a celebration of Birth of a Nation as a film and that film, as you know, helped to give birth to the KKK again,” Gergen said.

He then noted that “since the ‘60s it has become socially unacceptable for a president to say out loud what he may privately believe.”

Gergen then gave Nixon as an example.

“[Nixon] was very anti-Semitic at times…But in Nixon’s time, he said these things in private, not in public.”

Then turning to Trump’s recent comments and rally behavior during the “Send her back” chant, Gergen said this: “When you outdo Nixon in repulsiveness, you’ve come a long way.”

Watch above, via  CNN.

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